Michael G. Paciello
President
The Paciello Group

Mike Paciello is founder and president of The Paciello Group (TPG). TPG is dedicated to stimulating education, research, and development of technologies that ensure equality of access to information for all people.

In 1997, Mr. Paciello received recognition from Tim Berners-Lee and President William Clinton for creating the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) in behalf of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the White House.

In 1999, he received recognition from the U.S. Access Board for his "Outstanding Contribution" in the development of the Section 508 standards for electronic and information technology.

Mr. Paciello is the creator of WebABLE, the first commercial portal addressing web accessibility. His book, "Web Accessibility for People with Disabilities", published by CMP Books, was an industry first. (The second edition is scheduled for release in the Spring of 2004.)

Mike has more than 18 years experience in the area of assistive technology and interface design, including 10 years as Program Manager for Digital Equipment Corporation's Vision Impaired Information Services (VIIS) office. At Digital, Paciello produced the computer industry's first mainstream CD-ROM containing computer documentation accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired (VIOLD).

He is co-founder of the International Committee for Accessible Document Design (ICADD) and a former member of the FCC Telecommunications Act Advisory Committee (TAAC), which developed the standards for Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act.

He served as Chief Accessibility Consultant to the Telecommunication Industries Association (TIA) and the Electronic Industries Foundation (EIF).

Mike's current schedule includes serving on advisory and standards committees for universities, governments, and international organizations; contributing articles to technical journals; and speaking at conferences worldwide.

Mike is a member of the Internet Society (ISOC), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the Society for Technical Communication of Boston (STC-Boston).